OMAHA, Neb.– Tornadoes caused widespread damage across the Midwest on Friday, causing a building to collapse with dozens of people inside and destroying and damaging hundreds of homes, many around Omaha, Nebraska.
There were several reports of injuries Friday evening, but no immediate deaths were reported. Tornado warnings continued to be issued in Iowa well into the night.
Three people were injured in Nebraska’s Lancaster County when a tornado struck an industrial building, causing it to collapse with 70 people inside. Several people were trapped, but everyone was evacuated and the injuries were not life-threatening, authorities said.
One of the most destructive tornadoes tore through miles of mostly rural farmland Friday before destroying homes and other structures in the suburbs of Omaha, a city of 485,000 and a metropolitan area of about 1 million.
Photos on social media showed the small town of Minden, Iowa, about 30 miles (48.3 kilometers) northeast of Omaha, also suffered heavy damage.
The weather forecast for Saturday was ominous. The National Weather Service has issued tornado watches in parts of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Forecasters warned that large hail and strong winds were possible.
“It looks like another major outbreak tomorrow,” said Becky Kern, the warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Omaha. “Maybe a little further south.”
Hundreds of homes sustained damage in Omaha on Friday, especially in the Elkhorn area in the western part of the city, Omaha police Lt. Neal Bonacci said.
“You can definitely see the path of the tornado,” Bonacci said, adding that many homes were destroyed or heavily damaged.
Police and firefighters went door to door to help people, going to the “hardest hit area” with the plan to search anywhere anyone was trapped, Omaha Fire Chief Kathy Bossman said.
“We will search properties in ruins, we will search basements, try to find any victims and make sure anyone who needs help is rescued,” Bossman said.
In one part of Elkhorn, dozens of newly built, large homes were damaged. At least six were destroyed, including one razed to the ground, while others had their top halves ripped off. Dozens of emergency vehicles arrived on the scene.
“We saw it land about 200 yards out there and then we took cover,” said Pat Woods, who lives in Elkhorn. “We could hear it coming. When we got to the top our fence was gone and we looked to the northwest and the whole neighborhood was gone.”
Kim Woods, his wife, added: “The whole neighborhood just north of us is pretty flat.”
Three people, including a child, were in the basement of the razed home when the tornado hit but got out safely, said Dhaval Naik, who said he is working with the home’s owner.
Video from KETV-TV showed a woman being taken on a stretcher from a demolished home in Blair, a city just north of Omaha.
Two people were transported for treatment, both with minor injuries, Bonacci said.
Officers conducted a second search. Fire crews would work through the night to check any unsafe structures and make sure no one is inside, Bonacci said.
“People were warned about this and it saved lives,” Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said of the few serious injuries.
The tornado warning was issued in the Omaha area Friday afternoon, just as children were scheduled to be released from school. Many schools had student shelters until the storm passed. Hours later, buses were still transporting children home.
“Was it one tornado with a long track or was it multiple tornadoes?” Kern from the National Weather Service said.
The agency planned to send out multiple crews in the coming days to determine the number of tornadoes and their strength, which could take up to two weeks, she said.
“Some appeared to be violent tornadoes,” Kern continued. “There were tornadoes in several areas. And so it’s like forensic meteorology, we call it, putting together all the damage indicators.
Another tornado struck an area on the eastern edge of Omaha and passed directly through parts of Eppley Airfield, the city’s airport. Officials halted aircraft operations to access the damage but then reopened the facility, said Steve McCoy, Omaha Airport Authority’s chief strategy officer.
The passenger terminal was not affected by the tornado, but people rushed to shelters until the tornado passed, McCoy said.
After passing the airport, the tornado crossed the Missouri River and into Iowa, north of Council Bluffs.
Nebraska Emergency Management Agency spokesperson Katrina Sperl said Friday afternoon that damage reports were just coming in. Taylor Wilson, a spokesperson for the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said they had not seen any injuries.
In Lancaster County, where three people were injured when an industrial building collapsed, sheriff’s officials also said they had reports of an overturned train near Waverly, Nebraska.
Two people who were injured in the county were treated at the trauma center at Bryan Medical Center West Campus in Lincoln, the facility said in a news release. The hospital said the patients were in triage and no details about their conditions were released.
The Omaha Public Power District reported that nearly 10,000 customers were without power in the Omaha area. By Friday evening, the number had dropped to about 7,300.
Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen posted on the social platform
“Nebraskas are no strangers to severe weather and, as they have done countless times before, Nebraskans will help Nebraskans rebuild,” Pillen said.
Daniel Fienhold, manager of the Pink Poodle Steakhouse in Crescent, Iowa, said he was sitting outside with his daughter and restaurant employees watching the weather, and recalled that “it looked like a pretty big tornado was forming” at northeast of the city.
“It started raining, and then it started hailing, and then all the clouds started swirling and coming together, and as soon as the wind started picking up I went down to the basement, but we never saw it. Fienhold said.
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Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Associated Press writers Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota, Jeff Martin in Atlanta and Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, contributed to this report.